Hi.

Yeah, still alive (I think). If anyone is wondering what it is that's keeping the art from coming its mostly because I'm in the processing of writing scientific papers, and its literally taking up every minute of my free time. I'm in serious worry of burning out on this schedule. I will post one thing later that I managed to get done.

ANYHOW Apparently Termyotter has been nominated for the Fandom's Favorite Fursuit Fracas tourney, which I guess is a bit of a fursuit popularity contest. So, ummm, if you feel like it please consider voting for me. :) I believe voting starts tomorrow.

Info and stuff here. http://community.livejournal.com/fursuittourney/

Two previous incidents had started to cool me to the idea, not to mention a severe lack of time.

No more gift art, period. Trades or maybe a commission or two when I can manage it, or people I still owe stuff to.

Look, I get it, OK. My skill level isn't very high compared to a whole LOT of people. I tried to work on it, but I just don't have the time to devote to it to keep up with others. A gift of this sort isn't a big deal... at least not to the recipient. The shortest thing takes several hours to sketch/revise/ink, let alone colour.

Its just very very hard to get time to do this anymore, at least for a few more months, and I just don't need that anymore. If I'm going to draw something I want to get something out of it, mostly personal satisfaction. Translating my OWN ideas for a change.

Comment if you like (I'd prevent it on this one if I could), but I ain't responding.

I figure I have to write this because there are a few people waiting on stuff from me, and one or two others wondering if I'll be putting up any stuff.

The last while I've been busy with work. The next year looks like it'll only get worse, not better in that respect. That means that if I want to do this whole drawing thing I'd better buckle down and do it.

The free time I've had, I admit my tendency has been to distract myself to other things. I distract easily so that's not been hard. Now as I try to recover some of the meager skill I did have I look at everything in my watchlist and cringe at how far behind I've got, how far up I have to go, even if I want any sort of small level of respect from myself.

Spare me the "you shouldn't compare yourself to others" stuff too. Yes, there is some truth to that, but there's a fair glob of BS in there as well. If you can't convey what you want in a way that even remotely stacks up to others, well, why bother? Art is a performance-based thing, where what you produce is never fully context-free... that means, yes, there is comparison to what others do.

Many that say this compare themselves to the top talents, but that's not realistic. The problem is I'm comparing myself to what seems like the median and I'm really really lacking.

There's a lot to fix. To start with I hope to do some work on improving faces, then move to general anatomy, and then coloring. The latter ending with learning more than a smattering of Photoshop. As it turns out my work now involves some work with putting together images in that program so I can justify learning more in that it will help work as well.

I guess for now, unless I've actually sent a sketch of something I'm working on for you I'll probably have to axe any possible commissions. I just don't feel I could produce anything to significant quality to warrant money. And also, I need to really work hard on specific problems I have, and such projects don't really do that. They can help, but they don't allow for the re-drawing and re-drawing, and analysis necessary for a concerted effort to pick myself up and get better at this.

Oh... my... God....

(this is certainly NOT SAFE FOR WORK) I know the Japanese do some very strange programs.... I think its supposed to be a comedy bit about a Power Rangers spoof. BY what I can gather the rangers are trying to find the right costume for themselves. That this was in the thought process....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXFIzdCvEpg

And why can I see this being done with furries? (don't answer that :) ).

"I said don't spin it!" *giggles*

Yeah, I'm still here. I'm working on a few things. When those are done I'll do a trade or two (already picked) then maybe another commission or so.

I'd post stuff, but it looks like my printer/scanner is down. What a lovely design feature of the Canon I have that it error messages for the printer, then doesn't allow anything to be done at all. *grrrr* The HP I had previous went 8 years without a single repair.

Though I will admit I've been having a real difficult time of it as of late trying to motivate myself. There just really seems to be a huge gulf between what I'm producing at this point and what I'd find acceptable that its hard to sit myself down and work on stuff.

I'm still looking into the fursuit thing. The one thing that could be tricky is/are the silvery paws. I'm not particular on what is used for them, but a metallic shine in some way is what I want. does anybody know of material (or suppliers of same) that could work for such a thing. I think I've seen some spandex tht has a metallic sheen to it, but I'm trying to find what's out there.

Other than that not a lot extra to report. MFF was very so-so. FC is looking more and more probable.

And in case I don't say it before then.... Merry Christmas.

I guess I'll put this up here, who know, someone may have an interest in one or two of these things.

If anyone would like to make an offer on a VERY lightly used PSP (old model) with 32Mb card, case, plastic shield, and the following games: Daxter, Mercury, and Lego Star Wars II (original trilogy). Also have one UMD video: Ghostbusters (I love that movie so...)

I also have an old Guitar Hero controller + Game + original box for the PS2.

Will entertain any serious offers.

OK, that's the for sale out of the way. Now the possible give-away.
For a while this year I had a bit of an addiction to WoW. I quite cold turkey after it started eating up too much time. I still want to go back, but I won't.

Before I terminate the account though I had a small stable of Horde characters on Thunderhoof server. If anyone is there and would like some of the reagents, jewels, potions, leather, and gold ole money, let me know your character name and I'll transfer it. No sense letting it go to waste after all.

I'm in.... its hard to say what the mood is.

The drawing is going OK. Not great, but OK. I wish I could say there was improvement, but it seems I'm more just keeping at status quo. The problem is that the status quo in the larger scheme of things keeps getting better.

It seems I really just draw for a small little niche, but don't produce anything that really goes beyond that. A niche within a niche in fact. The thing is, really, that's about it. The skill level of people is rising fast and there are quite a few that can do a good job of rendering things.

Nawww, I think what concerns me more is the lack of my own ideas. When I started out I was drawing so that one day I could illustrate my ideas. I should have written down more of those now. That's more my concern, that I'm not really coming up with any ideas. I figure decent illustration is one thing, but an idea, like a joke, that's something that can stand out. Certainly that's what makes a picture stand out to me more than anything.

I guess the other thing that goes with that is I've not done a lot of trades or anything with people. Honestly, I'm not that sociable around many artists. I continuously worry about being the fanboy to the point where I shut down getting to know many with skills in this area. Those I know that do draw are more the exception than the rule. I've said this before though so I'm probably repeating myself ad-nauseum. I suppose I could do OC or something, but again, initiating such, I'd not ask. The problem with OC is that I draw and re-draw things a lot, and get self-conscious about the lines if someone is watching, which makes the thing rather stressful.

So, I guess maybe for this weekend I'll try just sketching a whole bunch of things. Odd, unusual, whatever comes to mind. Just do that and put them up as scraps. I hope nobody minds a dump of such images. I know sometimes if someone dumps 10 or 12 images at once I can get a little annoyed. Maybe make a little game of it and see which gets the most notice.

I still need to get to a couple of E-mails about commssions. Hopefully soon. I don think I need to do this this weekend however.

OK, I think I'm pretty much up to speed again. I've posted some of the practice attempts and I have another for tomorrow.

So, I've contacted a few people that had paged me before about this stuff. But I'm mentioning it here now.

Here's the current "rules":

(1) There's no "list" beyond 1-3 accepted at a time. More than that and its a chore and nothing gets done.

(2) Selection is based to some degree on (a) order in which I'm contacted, (b) if I may owe something to you, or © the ease of the project. Ease of project is pretty important. I'm not charging a lot here, so if one is 3X easier than the others, guess what.

(3) Prices went up $5 at least. I still think I'm on the low side though. Its not because I figure I got better, but because I could always think up other things to do with the time. Other things to sketch too. :) If you want the original mailed, that's a few bucks more.

(4) Will consider trades. I tend to default to getting the cash so I can get that orcaotter head. Still, there are some folks I will gladly trade with.

(5) Payment due upon completion and before send of the final scan. I do this so nobody is stiffed money, but I HAVE BEEN STIFFED to the tune of about $300 over the years. I keep all E-mails until the work is done. I WILL be very angry if stiffed again. I go out of my way not to do it to others, so I expect similar respect. Any work that isn't paid for will NOT see the light of day, so you're not going to get a freebie!

NOTE: You can page me here, but I'd prefer going through E-mail at Terminotaur[at]gmail.com especially for the details. If you want to just give a short run down of things and ask if I'll take it you can page here, but I'll just ask you to re-send it to the E-mail if I take it.

Prints: If there's something you see here that you like, chances are I have a high-res scan and can do a quality print for you (high end inkjet on quality matte or glossy paper). those are $7 each. get three and there's no cost to ship it (otherwise its about $4).

Old Originals: If there's an old picture I've done that wasn't sold at auction or otherwise out of my hands I will consider selling it. Depends which we're talking about but $10-$20 is the probable range.

There, that should cover just about everything. :)

Hi all,

OK, after some time away from drawing I'm trying to get back to it. I have two larger projects I still need to work on, but I do want to take some single items too. Nothing too complicated though because as I said I need to get back into things.

So, I'm willing to possibly take on commissions that are fairly simple and basic for now. Prices are still the same but when I get back into things more I'll probably increase the price a little.

Also willing to consider some possible trades too.

In all cases please don't feel put off if I turn something down. A lot will depend right now on what I feel I can pull off with some level of acceptable skill.

OK, why is "salsa shark!" appearing in the bar below the FurAffinity banner when I look at messages or put in this journal entry.

*confused and frightened at the thought of being stalked by a spicy shark*

While I'm getting back to drawing after some time away, and a bunch of work-related stuff I did pick up a PS3.

Sorry for being a luddite here, but I've never done any sort of online gaming with anyone else, buuuut if someone does want to add me or something I'm there under the name "terminotter"

Also, can anyone suggest some of the better games? I've picked up Ratchet and Clank (duh, who hasn't :) ). Any other that are good?

I'm back from FC. It was a so-so con for me actually.

Anyhow the point is that I'm still trying to catch up on comments/notes/watches and soforth. Please be patient.

Hello...

Lots has been happening both before the trip, the first week of this trip, and now at FC here.

Just dropping a line for folks here about where to get hold of me.

I'm in room 557. Well, I'm not in there a lot, but that's where I'm parking for what little sleep I plan to get.

I'll try and check back here twice a day for any notes.

I do have a cell with me, but I'm not giving the number out in a public forum. I will give it out on an individual basis though (see above about leaving notes here)

I'm looking to try and get some folks help me with doing a duct tape dummy of myself at this con. the more I can get helping the faster it'll go I suppose. Trying to figure out a good time for this but SUNDAY afternoon looks like it might work the best (schedule looks pretty free of programming). Going to say 2-5 at the above room, but I'll post on this when I confirm. Also need to get my hands on some scissors somehow....

OK, that looks like it for now. Early/mid evening post to follow this one. Have a great time. :)

Starting to get things slowly ready for the convention. I'd hoped to be in the artists alley, but last year I didn't know that I'd be so bloody busy with things.

I still need to get hold of those I'm staying with the make sure I'm staying with (please E-mail! Terminotaur@gmail.com) to make sure one last time I have the space in that room, and that my RL name is on the room so I can get a key.

At least the dollar is still not that bad. It'll help the bottom line somewhat.

I did think about doing prints, but they were all done on non-glossy paper. High quality stuff, but people all seem to like the glossy stuff. Then again I still am not sure what to charge, and I'd rather not be chained to a table all day. I'm still not sure all of what will be going on, but I'm guessing it will be pretty hectic in a good way.

Probably do one more post before I go on Thursday. Oh, in case anyone else is coming in around the same time, if you'd want to share a shuttle... getting in Thursday at 2:50PM at O'hare. :)

So, if you see me there, say hi, if I forget your name or face (sadly it DOES happen a lot) do let me know. :)

This will probably be making the rounds of various sources of news soon, and some of you may have seen it already... (cross-posted to LJ)

Seems some bullies decided to give a guy some trouble for wearing a pink shirt to school. Some students though decided enough was enough...

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Se.....ch/858884.html


Speaking as someone that was bullied in grades 1-8 somewhere between always to as little as somewhat often this is soooo neat. Apparently they're getting a lot of recognition too, which is good.

Two things tonight....

First off the really good news. I won a trip for two anywhere in Canada tonight (on WestJet)!!! Its not a scam, it was presented to me at an volenteer appreciation party (the grand prize). I have to figure out now where I want to go with it sometime in the next year. More problematic (possibly), is that I'll have to take it alone. :( Still, no reason to pout. How often do you get a free ticket? Who knows, may just ask if someone wants to come here and then travel on someday. :)

As to MFF. I'm pretty much AOK to go, finally. I'll get a ticket soon, but I'm wondering of the people that said they have room, who still has room? If nobody replies to this, I'll just go back and ask everyone that mentioned possibly having space before.

Oh yes, they laughed at me for it, and VCL Horrors decided to hit this Yiff Yiff Revolution pic ( http://www.furaffinity.net/view/125928/ )

Well, guess what...

http://www.jennylc.com/intimate_controllers/

They're getting closer and closer to it! :D

A couple months ago some might recall that I was pretty pissed off that my nice hi-res widescreen Dell monitor started doing all sorts of weird things. I was pretty mad that I was stuck with this lemon, and not happy with the ‘well, you’re out of luck’ response I got from tech support when I called.

A lot of folks chimed in with how bad Dell was. I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic with trashing them because past dealings had been positive, but I wasn’t going to defend ‘em either.

Now, let me tell you what happened later on.

After complaining in a few semi-public places like this (certainly nothing bigger than FA), someone that works for Dell saw what had happened and decided, on their own, to look into it. It just didn’t seem right to them, and they liked helping people solve problems in their job. And, It turned out it wasn’t right. They went out of their way to see that indeed I could get the monitor replaced.

So, you know what? I really think that reflects extremely well on that person, and pretty well on the company. But you know, I want to say something else here. We really have to watch it when we trash a whole company sometimes. In any of them there are pockets of people that are dedicated and really mean well and want to do a good job. When they do, they have to be thanked. Because if you don’t do something to make sure these people get compliments, and hopefully promoted, well, what’s to stop assholes working their way up the company ladder huh? The first person I talked with, well, I wish I’d written their name down, because they were a jerk. But I DO have the name of the person that went out of their way to help me, and I’ll be making sure their superiors know that they really were there for me.

Every company will churn out some lemons. Now if its an established pattern, then you have to watch it. Its what they do to fix it, or what they don’t do, that can often be the big difference.

So, thank you Dell, and thank you to the person that really cares about what it is they do. Because of you I can easily read what it is I'm typing tonight. :)

I hate doing multiple posts so this is a 2 for 1. :)

First commissions.
I have a week of vacation time to take off before my job ends and classes start. I don't have the money to take a trip right now, so might as well put it to use and devote it to drawing.
So, if you'd contacted me before about a commission and I said "not right now" tell me. I'll take it on. I want a bunch of things to work on so I can switch from one to the other (otters aren't exactly known for concentration after all :) ). Be advised there could be a wait because first in the pipeline after I finish one pic hopefully this weekend is a TF sequence, which is at LEAST 5 pages.

No money up front, so if the wait gets longer you're not out anything.

Second, MFF

I'm still waiting to find out about the room, but wow, I got a lot of replies to that one. Thanks ever so. :) I should clarify that I'll probably be looking for Thurs-Sun or Thurs-Saturday stay (staying up late Sunday and taking an early flight out), so if those times are good for anyone let me know. I hope to know my situation in a week or so.

OK, it looks like things are turning out a bit better than expected. I didn’t get a job, but I did get on with a PhD program that pays a bit. I’ve taken out a fairly decent loan that has some room in it for a number of things. One or two are in fact frivolous. I figure if I’m going to suffer 3 more years I’m going to do a little something for me.

However, earlier in the year it didn’t look that good, and I asked for commissions. Now, some of those may have been given because it looked like I was in trouble. This turned out not to be the case in the end.

Buut, if someone does feel a bit miffed about this that paid me for a commission please do let me know. I don’t want to have taken advantage of someone that was being generous when it looked like things were bad. If you are in fact annoyed that this happened do E-mail me and I’ll see about “paying it forward” to someone else, or a group that could use it.

Now, the future….
I will start taking commissions, but no more than 2 at a time. Any more than that and it becomes a major chore, and I start avoiding drawing. Right now I’m finishing off one, and have two more to go. After those are done I have one person that sent me a note not that long ago.

There may have been others. If you had asked and got told to wait, please drop me a note here or send a letter along to terminotaur[at]gmail.com

Thanks for the responses so far. I should explain why I'm asking this....

I'd like to explore a fursuit based around Termyotter. Some things changed a bit around my situation for the next few years. Things will still be a bit tight, but nothing I can't handle. Cut back here and there a lot outside of this.

Anyhow, this is a long term project for several reasons that I won't get into. I won't be able to spend the time to acquire enough skills to do the work myself. I could sell some stuff on Ebay (a skill set I SHOULD acquire) and do commissions here there where I can. I figure better to at least try and get a bit more skill with that.

Anyhow, if anyone wants to suggest anyone that does such suit commissions and is good at it I'd like to hear about them. I admit I'd be a bit of a stickler on the face (I’ve seen at least two very good otter masks out there and each was “wrong” to me), and that brings me to what I was asking. There are varying levels of "tooniness" and I'm wondering what would work best with my orcaotter. I admit I'm a bit conflicted on this right now. I see him as sort of interchangeable between somewhat toony and realism. I was curious how others view him.

As to commissions (including those done this summer), I will put up a journal after this….

Some of you that watch this space know my avatar these days is my orcaotter, Terminotter. (plenty of references in my gallery, and a new one coming this week or the next)

Here's a question I really would like answered. It does actually have an impact on something, otherwise I'd not be asking:

If you were to imagine this character, how would you see him, as a more cartoony sort of character or one that skewed more to realism? Its sort of one of those questions, like if you were to run into him on the street what would you imagine him as?

Just trying to decide what direction to go with him I think.

Due to some possible room problems, it looks like I don't have a place to stay for MFF, and things seem to be booked up.

So, ummm, might anyone have some space?

(Still not sure about what will happen with FC either, but at least there I had booked a room, so its a matter of what do I do)

A month and about 4 hours later I'm back home after having gone around and visted several friends in the US and Canada. Now that that's done, I hope not to take Greyhound again if I can possibly help it. There are so many stories I could tell, and I will tell a few.

So, I've got like 2000 submissions to look through, and tons of comments, journals, and several notes here after paying bills, doing E-mails and the like, so it'll be a while before I get everything sorted out.

Not a lot of new art right away, but I did get a few really lovely pictures of otters and roos at a couple zoos, which I hope to post here.

OK, I did have a good time at AC. IT wasn't totally without bumps mind you, but I did have a good time. Meeting some from here and chatting was really nice. :) And you know, that's the really important part of it for me. This isn't a business for me. Luckily my main talents lay somewhere where I can pull down a salary (or stipend, when I go back to school).

The art show, wow, that was something of a letdown. Mind you a couple pieces went high, I think I'll just put up here what everything went for. I will also note that it seemed to be a pretty lean year for many in the art show, and overheard several others much better than I saying that.

The results:
This is Spart...Crete! : Sold $20
In hOtter Water: Sold $10 (min bid)
Inconvenient Truth II: Not Sold
Guitar HeRoo: Sold $50 (woo! If the person that got that is reading this, contact me, need to talk)
Come Ride the Elephant: Sold $10 (min bid)
Its All Within Reach: Sold $50 (again woo!)
Our Lady of Medicine: Sold $10 (min bid)
Avast: Not sold
Orcapeek: Not Sold

So, after all that I'm debating doing the print sales thing. If the originals barely get the cost of a print, this may not be a viable thing. Or else just offer them on demand, and throw in free shipping.
Or maybe I need to try something like FurBid, try the FC or MFF shows.

Any imput?